Improved steam-heating apparatus for warming buildings



(a. w. RICHARDSON.

Steam Heater.

No. 28,504. Patnted May 29, 1860.

" UNITED STATES PATENT I OFFICE.

GEORGE IV. RICHARDSON, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVED STEAM-HEATING APPARATUS FOR WARMING BUILDINGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 28,504, dated May :29, 1860.

To ctZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. RICHARD- SON, of the city, county, and State of New York, have discovered a new and useful Arrangement of Steam-Pipes for the Purpose of Heating Buildings; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawing, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

In the drawing is represented a vertical section of a building with a boiler and pipes arranged according to the principles of my invcntion.

Long prior to the date of my invention it has been proposed to heat buildings by radiation of heat from either pipes in coils or some other form of hollow radiator containing steam, the steam being supplied by conducting-pipes in connection with the steamchamber of a boiler and the coils, and the water condensed in the coils being returned directly by other connecting-pipes to the Waterspace of the boiler. In this way it was sup posed that a circulation could be kept up without difficulty, and therefore that it would be unnecessary to feed the boiler, except from time to time, and then only with a small amount of water due to the loss occasioned by leakage in the various parts of the apparatus. These suppositions have, so far as I know, proved erroneous, and such plans have been universally abandoned, it having been found necessary in practice to connect check-valves and steam-traps with the coils in a manner well known to makers of steam-heating apparatus and to pump the water delivered from the steam-traps back again to the boiler. These plans, which are now in general use, therefore involve the necessity and expense of check-valves, steam-traps, and apu mp, and from time to time either an engine or some other force to pump the water back again to the boiler. Now by means of my discovery I have been enabled to dispense with these accessories and to insure a reliable circulation and return of water to the boiler as fast as condensed. Isay thatI have been enabled to do so on good grounds, for during the last twenty-two months I have put up my arran gement of heating-pipes in many buildings in the city of New York, some of which are large, and in all of them have attained success. I

have endeavored without success to discover the rationale of my arrangements, or, in other words, what is the new principle of action induced by my arrangement. Allthat I can do therefore is to describe it and specify such points in the arrangement as are necessary to its successful working.

In the drawing a boiler provided with safety-valve blow-oft cock and, if desired, with indicators of water-level and of pressure of steam, is represented atct act, and this boiler should be located in the lowest part of the building to be heated or in a vault level therewith. From this boiler rises a pipe I) 0 cl, the lower end of which is in connection with the steam-space of the boiler, and this pipe, as will be seen in the drawing, decreases in diameter as it rises, not gradually, but by a sudden jump, at each floor of the building. In the various floors are to be located coils of radiating-pipes c f g in such positions as may be desired, and each coil is to be put in connection with the ascending steampipe by means of a siphon-shaped pipe. These siphon-shaped pipes are shown at h i j, their upper bends being at some distance above the top of the radiating-coils, the long leg of the siphon being in connection with the asccnding pipe just below the point where it decreases in diameter, and the end of the short leg being connected with the upper part of the coil.

In connection with the lower or water space of the boiler is a descending pipe Z m '22. pipe increases in diameter as it descends, and each coil is in connection therewith, as shown in the drawing, the connections joining into the descending pipe just below the points where it suddenly increases'in diameter. As useful accessories to this arrangement, I have fitted each coil with a stop-valve, so as to shut the steam oif any coil, and have attached to the descending pipe a blow-off valve 0 and a stop-valve p, by the use of which I am enabled to blow or draw the water out of all the pipes. Other stop-valves may be placed, if desired, in the connections between each coil and the descending pipes, so that each coil may be shut off from both steam and water, if desired, in order that each coil may. be repaired without throwing the rest of the apparatus out of use. The pipes in all the This 2 2s,5o4 v coils are, as usual, to be laid with adescent toward the descending pipe, and. any form of coil or hollow radiator used as a substitute for a coil may be applied in place of the precise arrangement or form of coil shown in the drawing. V 7

In case where several coils near together are located on the same floor, one descending and one ascending pipe will do for all. Where the coils extend over considerable space, the best plan is to apply several sets of descending and ascending pipes. of decrease of the ascending and enlargement of the descending pipes is not important; but I findthat the best plan is to decrease and increasethe area of the pipes in proportion to the coils they are tosupply and to the condensedwater they are to deliver. For in stance, .in a three-story building with equal amount'of heating-surface on each floor the ascending and descending. pipesshould have an area of three between the coils of the first 'fioor and thee-boiler, of, two between the second-andithe firstfloor coils, and of one between" thecoils of the second and third floor, and by the numbers one, two, and three I mean-zto express the proportionate areas of thepipesat different points of their length.

IIhQpBI'EtfiLlgWith the apparatus the boiler is to befilled to the ordinary water-level and steam. is to be raised, when the steam will.

ascend through the rising pipes, be condensed in thecoils and-return in the shape 0t water to the boiler, keeping upaperfect circulation. I halve-sometimes prior to getting up a full head of steam shut. the. stop-Valve p and opened theblow-off valve 0, thus blowing all the air out of the pipes, and after it is all out have opened 19 and shut 0 but this preliminary-operation does not appear essential to the Working of the apparatus.

The recise de 'ree i' I have shown in the drawing the siphons in the shapeandproportion that have worked best in practice; but the precise shape and proportions are not important so long as they are siphons whose bends reach a level above the level of the coils that they supply.

I am aware of the fact that in one of Perkinss water-heating apparatus there is described a radiator with which an ascending water-pipe connects after rising above the radiator, so that the ascending water-pipe turns over and descends before it connects with the radiator; but such a contrivance is not claimed by me, as in that apparatus there is no boiler and no ascending steam-pipe and no return of condensed water to a boiler or heater; but

What I claim as of my own invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. Thecombination of an ascending steampipe, with siphons constructed and arranged substantially as described, and with radiators to which are connected a descending waterpipe, the whole forming a continuous open circuit between the steam-space and the waterspace of a boiler.

2. In combination, first, coils or their equivalent, ,for radiating heat into apartments; second, siphons constructed and arranged substantially as described and making connection between the ascending'steam-pipes and the coils, and, third, ascending steampipes and descending watergpipes, each varying in area, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name, in the city of New York, on this 27th day of March, A. D. 1860.

GEORGE W. RICHARDSON.

In presence of- THOS. WM. W001), HENRY A. SIMS. 

